History
New York State built Greycourt Prison on a 300 plus acre site in 1918 to incarcerate female convicts. However, the jail only housed a prison population until 1934. After that, it was taken over by New York City as a farm colony for the poor and homeless of the Great Depression. Prior to safety net programs like social security, disability and Section 8 housing, Farm Colonies were a popular housing model for many state and local governments to provide a self-sustaining, therapeutic environment for the destitute or mentally disabled. The former prison was renamed Camp LaGuardia in 1935 to reflect repurposing of the facility.

New York City’s homeless would be bused 65 miles north of the city to the 1,001-bed facility in the evening. Early in the camp’s history the residents would work the farm or find employment at one of the nearby Jewish resorts. While the “camp” originally housed working indigent men, that demographics changed in the latter part of the last century as the homeless population began to consist more of younger drug addicted and/or mentally ill males. The more recent population gained a negative reputation after incidents involving the community including, public urination, the strangulation of a local’s pet rabbit and others.

Prompted in part by the changing demographics of the camp, as well as, the aforementioned incidents, local opposition to the facility grew throughout the 1980s until its closing. In 2007 the Bloomberg administration began moving camp residents to subsidized housing or other shelters in preparation for the decommissioning. The facility was closed in 2008 and the buildings have remained empty since. The most recent news on the property indicates that the site is being cleaned up and marketed for commercial redevelopment by the county.

Exploration
The former women’s prison turned homeless shelter had few artifacts or ephemera; however, it has some interesting architecture and was exciting to explore due to a couple of near run-ins. Before we were finished wandering around, we had to hide from a couple of locals. Note, normally meeting the locals isn’t a concern regardless of location but this place had kind of a deliverance vibe. Also, be warned, if you seek this place out and pay it a visit, it is patrolled.

History
Frontier Town is a defunct old west theme park built in 1951. Its creator Art Benson wanted to bring the old west to the rural mountains of east coast. He didn’t have any construction skills, income or business plan when he founded the faux village; however, the enterprise was successful none the less. The theme park contained a town square, rodeo arena, grain mill, animal pens, train station, Native American Village, chapel and a fort. It also had a motel and a McDonalds on site. Benson wanted Frontier Town to be immersive. To achieve this goal there were interactive experiences, as well as western themed events. The park provided people opportunities to ride in a stagecoach, steam powered train, canoes and on horses. Events included a stagecoach robbery show complete with a shootout and a Pony Express exhibition.

Benson sold Frontier Land in 1983. The new owners closed the park until 1989 when they reopened it with new attractions including a mini-golf course. The theme park closed for good in 1998 and was seized by the county for unpaid taxes totaling $318,000 in 2004. Many components of the park including, stagecoaches, trains, tracks, buggies and covered wagons have since been auctioned off.

Frontier Town Main Street

“Wester Outfitters” Storefront in Frontier Town

The park was once a place where memories were created. Thousands of people would visit each year. Many of whom can be found in comments sections of older blog posts about the site. For employees, many friendships and romantic relationships began here, during their seasonal employment. It was a special place but alas, today, all that is left is a haunting reminder of what used to be.

Mountain Diorama at Frontier Town

Frontier Town Building Interior

Exploring the Site
There is a public right-of-way through a portion of the property allowing legal access to part of the ghost town, although, entering the buildings adjacent to the road is prohibited, and for good reason. In addition to being private property most of the buildings are in various states of structural failure. The coolest part of the park, the town square, is a little more difficult to find. To access the square I drove my tiny car past a no trespassing sign down a claustrophobic, rutted path through the trees and weeds. As the path gave way to a clearing I could see the mock commercial district and chapel looking like an abandoned set from an old west movie shrouded in pine trees and brush. The row of store-fronts that are along the square are slowly decaying but the chapel looks almost untouched by anything but moss and weeds. It provided the money shot of this exploration.

Frontier Town Chapel

Motel

Motel Room

Future Plans
The county owns most of the property now and while there are plans for further demolition, local officials are holding out hope that some investors will give the place a new lease on life. The neighboring town could use an increase of tourist dollars and a revived attraction would help bring people to the area. In addition, the property is adjacent to the Boreas Ponds tract of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and there have been efforts to link the tract to a trail network across the river which could bring more outdoor recreation enthusiasts to the area. However, plans to build a bridge and cut additional trails for hikers, snow mobiles, horse back riding and mountain biking have stalled due to an ongoing debate over environmental concerns.

The American Motor Corporation (AMC) began as an appliance producer known as the Kelvinator Corporation. Founded in 1916 by Nathanial Wales, the company manufactured refrigerators and other household appliances. They released the first refrigerator in 1925. As the company’s operations grew, a new factory and headquarters complex was constructed on Plymouth Road. Architect Amendeo Leoni designed the new facilities, which included offices, a three-story factory and power plant.

Historic Aerial of Nash-Kelvinator Complex

Former AMC Headquarters Today

Kelvinator merged with auto manufacturer Nash Motors in 1937 to become Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. After the merger, in 1940, the building complex was enlarged to 1.46 million square feet on a 57-acre plot of land. This happened at a time when the city was preparing for wartime production ahead of the US entrance into the Second World War.

After World War Two, smaller auto companies went out of business or merged with larger ones. Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motors merged to become American Motors Corporation in 1954. After the merger, appliance production was moved to other facilities as the Plymouth Road plant focused on research and design for AMC’s auto manufacturing. The appliance division was later sold in 1968. AMC manufactured cars including the Rambler, Ambassador, Metropolitan, AMX, Javelin, Hornet and Gremlin models.

The company left its headquarters on Plymouth Road in 1973-1975 for a new space in the suburbs and the Plymouth facility was converted into engineering offices. In 1987 Chrysler purchased AMC. They continued to utilize the buildings as engineering offices until 1996 when Chrysler began moving employees out of the old AMC headquarters to their new Auburn Hills complex. On June 5th 2009, following Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the last remaining employees were transferred out of the facility.

After leaving, the former headquarters was put up for sale. It sold in 2010 for 2.3 million dollars. The complex eventually found its way into the holdings of Terry Williams, a convicted felon with a long rap sheet. Although he claimed to have purchased the collection of buildings to convert them into a treatment center for children with autism, his true motive for acquiring the buildings seems like it was for a different purpose. Under Williams’s ownership, the buildings valuable metal construction materials were systematically removed for their scrap value, although, Williams has denied scrapping the structures. After Williams returned to prison in July 2013, the complex was seized by the courts for unpaid property taxes and has remained abandoned since.

Scrapped Office Space in AMC Headquarters

I visited the property in April this year. Despite Terry Williams claim that he did not gut the buildings for their scrap value, I can assure you that the place has been thoroughly picked over. However, there must still be something worth salvaging, since we could hear scrappers tearing something apart on one of the upper floors in the building closest to Plymouth road. I had no desire to engage in a social exchange with the sort of animals that rely on illegal scrapping for a living so I steered clear. A lot of the complex is made up of abandoned cubical farm type office space, which is pretty homogeneous. The most interesting building on the property is the Deco style structure fronting Plymouth Road. In it, are what appear to be the executive offices and conference room, as well as the main lobby with grand marble stairs.

The once thriving area around the complex is now depressed and rundown. In addition, the buildings have been scrapped, vandalized and the site has been used for illegal dumping. The once proud AMC headquarters that anchored the neighborhood is no longer a desirable property. As such, the county has had a difficult time finding a buyer for the sprawling office center and its future is uncertain. There aren’t any definite plans for the property but demolition is being considered. Let’s hope they preserve the beautiful building fronting the complex.

There’s something beguiling about dank air that magnetizes both tattooed punks and families on bikes, alike. Or perhaps it’s the stale boredom of an omnivore’s fast food paradise – Breezewood –and not being satisfied by a sit-down meal, which lures travelers to the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike and her moldy tunnels.
Surrounded by unincorporated communities like Needmore, Hancock, and Manns Choice, the Bedford County’s rolling hills are no popular destination, but over the years through-traffic brought bottlenecking. So in 1968 the 4-lane Superhighway was deserted for a younger, smoother route with longer lanes.

Mechanical Room Above Ray’s Hill Tunnel

Giant Fan

The overall length of Abandoned Turnpike is 13 miles. Ray’s Hill tunnel is the shortest of the 7 turnpike passages, at 3,532 feet long, and is about 5 miles west of its vacant counterpart, Sideling Hill- the longest of the turnpike sisters, stretching 6,782 ft. Post closing, Pike2Bike began the upkeep of these unused roadways; now they are trodden mostly by truant teens and Lycra-loving fitness folks.

Abandoned Turnpike

Leading up to Ray’s Hill tunnel is an scenic stroll on broken pavement, the faded remnants of lane dividers peek lazily through the stray foliage that’ve since reclaimed it. Once the western portal entrance is visible, it insistently invites your company. But don’t go in without climbing atop – the monstrous exhaust fans are worth being awed by. Despite the threat of a 40-pound vulture scouring for prey (whose nest is also noticeably perched there) the area above the tunnel has a stagnant, barren feel to it. However, the dingy underpass is bewitching, and walking inside through the dark is a slow, misleading chase to the light at the end, which is tauntingly far. Run-ins with the locals may include discussions on why they are firing off smoke bombs, and whether or not their holstered firearm will be discharged during your visit.

Stairs to Lower Lever of Tunnel Building

First Floor of Tunnel Facility

Though the breath of Breezewood is primarily truckers honking their way back to I-76, the trail to Ray’s Hill doesn’t share its commotion, it is relaxed. After sunset, it is likely the same lot would host a dim sense of death – with no live street lights, the path transforms to an eerie lost highway.

While the tunnel has a certain enchantment about it, the town it hugs is not romantic. For every human on the sidewalk, there seems to be a dead motel – probably not much for pillow talk here. But there is Bob Evans, so exploring could be a fun day trip ending with pancakes and bacon.

All-in-all, Abandoned Turnpike would be a cheap ticket to get a conservative girlfriend hooked on abandoned stuff, or to finally get to pretend you’re on the set of a David Lynch film.

The Goerge Brady School opened in 1923 and served 350 students with thirteen teachers during its first year in operation. It was named after George Newton Brady, a native Detroit businessman known for his involvement in various charities, including the Michigan Fresh Air Society and the Boy Scouts Movement.

The school is a Neo Gothic Style elementary school designed by architecture firm Malcomson & Higginbotham. It is constructed of brick and has stone trim for the quoining, crenellation, cornice treatment and window trim. The most interesting features of the building’s interior are the Pewabic tilework, wainscot, and the carpentry. The two most interesting spaces are the auditorium and gymnasium. There is also a fallout shelter in the basement with supplies, you know, in case of communist invasion. The buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places; however, that fact has done little to help preserve the structures.

Brady School is the first academic facility in Detroit to be built using the “Brady Plan”. The Brady Plan was an architectural system designed to accommodate facility expansion. According to Detroit Urbex the plan became central to the building program of the Detroit Board of Education at the time. Grant, Parker and Courville schools were also built according to the Brady Plan. There were two additions to the Brady School. In 1924 a second unit was added to expand the original facility. It increased the school’s capacity to 1,320 children. Then, in 1961 a five room building was added on the northeast corner of the site to function as the school’s kindergarten.

While Detroit’s financial implosion made headlines during the housing market collapse and subsequent recession, its school system had been in financial trouble for decades. By the start of the recession in 2007, enrollment was down to one sixth of what it was during the 1960s. Around that time many schools where closed including this one. Closing in 2007, the school was sealed and patrolled for a time to keep scrappers and vandals at bay. Photos of the school from 2013 show a secure building and according to Detroit-ish the building was once fitted with motion sensing cameras to catch any trespassers that made it inside. However, in its current state of decay the place is wide open to people, animals and the elements. Nobody seems to care about it anymore. While we were standing in front of the school with camera gear a cop drove by and didn’t even slow down.

History
The Hudson Cement Company began its operations next to the Hudson River in East Kingston in the late 1950’s. The area is known for producing raw construction materials including, quarried limestone, bricks and cement. The cement from the Hudson Valley region (known as Rosendale Cement) was used in a lot of New York City construction including the Brooklyn Bridge, Federal Hall and base of the Statue of Liberty. The Hudson Company Cement Works was erected on the site of a former brick manufacturing plant known as the Shultz Company. By WWII, the Schultz Company had gone out of business along with many other local brickyards. Replacing the former Shultz plant, the cement factory was prosperous for a time but closed down in the early 1980s.

Hudson River Cement Works Silos

Cement Works Building

Current Status
The approximately 300 feet tall silos and shells of a couple of buildings are all that remains of the Hudson Cement Company plant. The site is now a popular place for graffiti artists and ATV enthusiasts. The walls of the hollowed out structures provide a canvas for street artists while the gravel and dirt paths provide the perfect surface for quads and dirt bikes. How long the site will remain in its current state is anyone’s guess. There have been plans for a 2,200-unit residential waterfront development for many years but to date, those plans have not come to fruition. The only meaningful construction related to redevelopment plans that I have noticed is the renovation of the Hutton Company Brick Works buildings nearby.

Exploration
Exploring the site was pretty straightforward. We had a nice early morning hike on the trails through the woods that lead to the site before wandering around the buildings and silos. Unlike other places I’ve been the people we ran into here were not explorers but locals on quads and workers coming down from the bluff that overlooks the site. The locals weren’t interested in us and we were on our way out when the workers drove down, so we didn’t have a meaningful interaction with either party. The biggest risk exploring here seems to be deer ticks. So, should you look this place up and pay it a visit, don’t forget to do a tick check afterward.

Reading the about the history of Letchworth Village is like wrapping yourself in a wet blanket. Enjoy.

Development and Architectural History
The official name for this facility was Letchworth Village Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptics. Letchworth was a reference to William Pryor Letchworth, a humanitarian and philanthropist. In 1911 the institution began taking in developmentally and physically disabled residents. The facility is situated on what was a pastoral 2,362 acre site. Similar to its contemporaries, Letchworth Village was meant to be a humane alternative to the previous generation of high-rise asylums. The campus was segregated with the male and female populations on separate portions of the site. The programing for the dormitories was that each was to have a capacity of 70 residents and not be more than two stories tall. Basements were not to be used for housing residents. Residents were to live in designated buildings grouped with others based on their mental capacity. The planning guidelines for the site dictated that the dormitories be a minimum of 200 feet apart to provide open space and allow for playgrounds for the buildings. Also, the location of each building was to take into account the natural beauty of the site. All of the buildings are low-rise residential type ashlar patterned stone buildings designed in the Greek Revival style surrounded by what was a working farm. The residents worked on the farm as a form of therapy, as well as to support the facility.

Life at Letchworth
Neglect, abuse and overcrowding were well documented issues at Letchworth. The facility reached its capacity of 3,000 residents in 1935 and by the late 1960s the population had swelled to 5,000. In 1948, one of the first polio vaccines was illegally tested on twenty children living on the campus. Partly due to overcrowding and underfunding, conditions at the site degenerated. Two major journalism pieces were published regarding the shortcomings of the facility. In the 1940s Irving Haberman published photos of dirty, naked and malnourished residents on floor mattresses with little to keep them occupied. Then, in 1972 Geraldo Rivera released a documentary titled Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace. While the main subject of the documentary was Willowbrook Hospital on Staten Island, Letchworth Village was also featured. Rivera, then a local investigative journalist, won a Peabody award for his work exposing the poor conditions at the facilities.

Letchworth Building

Letchworth Dormitory Building

Closing Letchworth
The treatment model employed by Letchworth Village was phased out across the country as reports of abuses surfaced, better treatment options became available and public perception of mental health treatment changed. As a result, the facility phased out admissions over time and eventually deinstitutionalized its residents by moving them to group homes. Letchworth Village was decommissioned in 1996. Since then, the property has been split up. Philip J. Rotella and Patriot Hills Golf Courses are built on former Letchworth Land. Some of the remaining buildings have been converted into Fieldstone Middle School, Willow Grove Middle School and the Stony Point Justice Court. The remaining buildings lie abandoned within a city park in Theills.

Grave Marker

Memorial with Names

Letchworth Cemetery
The Letchworth Village cemetery is tucked away in clearing among some woods. It is open to the public. Most of the graves are sited with numbered metal markers. As a memorial to those who suffered or were previously forgotten, a granite plaque has been erected listing the names that correspond to the numbers.

Letchworth Village Building

Building Interior

Exploring Letchworth
Letchworth Village is one of my least favorite exploration sites. I don’t like ending on a negative note but the history of this place is a total buzz kill and the buildings are completely trashed. I was caught by a police patrol while exiting one of the buildings. So, maybe if I had been able to explore more of the buildings I would be more into the place. The cop that caught us was totally cool about it, asking us to leave before escorting us to the Letchworth Village Cemetery which is open to the public. If you wish to visit the site, it is open from dawn to dusk as a park but the buildings are off limits. The take-away I got from our conversation with the police was that if you’re caught and you act like an asshat they will arrest you. With that I will leave you with this depressing video on Letchworth Village.

Architecture
The Gingerbread Castle was a children’s theme park built in 1930. It is based on the set design for a theatrical production of Hansel and Gretel featured at the Metropolitan Opera. The structure was designed by the Hansel and Gretel set designer Joseph Urban. Urban was an Austrian born architect, illustrator and scenic designer known for designing the Ziegfield Theatre in New York and Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach Florida. Since the Gingerbread Castle’s features resemble those of Gothic castles of the late medieval period, I would describe its design style as Fantasy Gothic.

Front of Wheatsworth Mills

Back Side of Wheatsworth Mills

The Creator
The theme park was the brain child of Fred Henry Bennet, owner of the adjacent Wheatsworth Mills. Bennet had purchased the mill (built 1808) in 1921 to expand his biscuit company. The impetus for building the theme park was to increase the mill’s slumping sales. Bennet eventually sold the property along with his business to Nabisco.

Gingerbread Castle Interior

Closing
The attraction was open until 1978 at which time the castle was closed except for tours and events. According to an article on Roadside America it was used as a haunted attraction for Halloween until 1997. However, the castle was open at other times as well. A friend of mine was taken there by her parents around Christmas every year to see Santa Clause. In 1997 the place was closed completely until the property was purchased by Frank and Lou Hinger. The Hingers received a grant from the Hampton Hotel’s Save-a-Landmark program and used the money to have the castle exterior and other features repainted. Their ultimate goal was to restore the theme park but after having difficulty raising the additional funds required, the Hingers were forced to put the property up for sale. The property eventually sold at a sheriff’s auction in 2007 for $680,000. The castle is currently owned by local real estate developers.

Exploring the Gingerbread Castle
The castle was pitch black until we made our way up the spiral staircase and out of the dungeon, at which point everything lit up like a bad acid trip. There were statues of colorful gnomes toiling away, candy cane columns, rainbow stairs and a pit of despair in the middle of a circular bench. While many have fond memories of the castle, my friend that visited the place while it was still open described it as “creepy before it was abandoned”. I found it to be a little creepy myself but no more so than any other abandoned place that was once for children. It’s not like there was guy in a clown suit hiding in the tower or anything. On that note, I’ll leave you with a final question. What might the theme park have looked like if it had been designed by the Little Mermaid castle designer?

]]>https://abandonedrelics.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/gingerbread-castle/feed/0Featured-ImagebkcorySmall three story colorful theme park castle with vines growing up the wallsgingerbread-castle-nj-historic-postcardBrightly colored room with rainbow stairs, gnome sculpturesConnected buildings of varying height from different eras and design stylesConnected buildings of varying height from different eras and design stylesPink interior space with circular bench with a hole in the center in the middle of the roomCover ArtSaint Agnes – Martyres of Uganda Catholic Churchhttps://abandonedrelics.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/saint-agnes-martyres-of-uganda-catholic-church/
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St. Agnes Ceiling

Glazed Tile Detail

Architecture
The St. Agnes Church property included a church, school, rectory and convent. Architecture firm Van Leyen, Schilling, Keough, and Reynolds designed all of the buildings on site in the Neo-Gothic style. The school was constructed in 1916 and the convent was completed the following year. The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1922. The fifteen hundred-seat sanctuary was dedicated on June 1st of 1924. All of the structures were built of red brick and limestone. The sanctuary also featured valuable glazed tiles, many of which have now been stolen.

St. Agnes Church

St. Agnes Convent

St. Agnes Girl’s High School

Church History
Poor St. Agnes has gone downhill fast since being abandoned. However, it wasn’t always this way. The church’s early days began like most of the church’s I’ve researched. Bishop John Foley purchased the land for the church in 1910 during a period of municipal expansion. The bishop rightly predicted that it was only a matter of time before the area would need a church.

The congregation of St Agnes was founded in 1914 and began worshiping in a frame house two blocks from the current church site. It wasn’t long before the congregation grew too large for its initial space and moved to a temporary church with a capacity for two hundred parishioners. The congregation remained there while their permanent sanctuary was being built.

After moving into their permanent sanctuary, the church thrived, growing to “1,600 hundred families, three priests, 22 nuns and a girl’s high school with 180 students by 1964”.[Detroit Urbex] However, the neighborhood began a precipitous decline in the latter part of the 1960s. A raid on a local bar sparked a confrontation between police and the community that devolved into a riot that led to the destruction of much of the neighborhood. Although the church was spared from the destruction, the damage to the neighborhood was permanent. Patronage to the church’s facilities steadily declined.

In 1989 St. Agnes merged with local St. Theresa Avila and the church was renamed to Martyrs of Uganda Catholic Church. The Martyrs of Uganda were African missionaries that refused to renounce their faith and were subsequently executed. The renaming was an effort to reflect the changing demographics of the church’s parishioners. In spite of the merger, as well as efforts by the church to attract new members, attendance continued to decline. The school closed in 2000. The church was shuttered in 2006 and subsequently sold in 2007.

Church Sanctuary

St. Agnes Church Nave & Transept

Church Window

After Abandonment
Prior to selling the church, the Archdiocese removed the pews and replaced the stained glass windows with acrylic panes. The congregation that purchased the church never occupied the space and allowed the buildings to decay. Without maintenance, the church succumbed to the elements, as well as thieves and vandals. Scrappers stole the organ pipes, tiles were removed, walls were smashed and water damage has caused portions of the ceiling to fall. The church was sold to a real-estate developer in 2012 and temporarily secured; however, the damage was done. What remains is little more than a haunting reminder of what the church once was.

Piano in St. Agnes Convent

Exploration
The current state of the church has attracted an interesting menagerie of visitors. In addition to graffiti artists, the buildings have been used for at least one wedding and a Google image search yields quiet a few model shoots. When I entered the sanctuary a photo shoot of kids in full World of Warcraft regalia was in progress. It made for an interesting first foray into Detroit urban exploration. If you are interested in doing your own photo shoot here, a word of warning, a local source informed me that the police are cracking down on trespassers at this location.

]]>https://abandonedrelics.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/saint-agnes-martyres-of-uganda-catholic-church/feed/0Featured-ImagebkcoryFish eye shot of vaulted church ceilingGlazed tile on church floor covered with dustRed brick Neo Gothic church and connected tower with smashed windows and boarded up doorsMansion like building with smashed out windowsBoarded up school building with smashed windowsRuins of church interiorCrumbling church interior without pewsInterior photo of damaged front window from stair landingUpright piano in good condition sitting inside vadelized roomAbandoned United Community Hospitalhttps://abandonedrelics.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/abandoned-united-community-hospital/
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United Community Hospital Exterior

The shiny modernist structure must have been a site when it rose from the ground in the early 1970s. Architecture firm Eberle M. Smith Associates designed the building in 1971 and construction was completed in 1974. The building’s rigid geometric forms and lack of embellishment were typical of modernism in the late 1960s and early 1970s but the shiny metal building façade would have made it stand out.

The United Community Hospital was originally occupied by Southwest Detroit Hospital. During a time when healthcare services were segregated, minority hospitals were established to dispense equitable healthcare that could not be found elsewhere for many minority groups. Southwest Detroit Hospital was one such hospital, the product of a merger between four local minority hospitals. However, by the time the hospital was established, segregation had been outlawed and the need for minority hospitals was on the decline.

4th Floor Hallway

Graffiti Robot with Mechanical Arm

Busted TV

Southwest Detroit hospital was in financial trouble from the start, although, the thin ice didn’t break until three decades later. Southwest filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and the facility was sold to United Community, as a subsidiary of HMO provider Ultimed. After being purchased, the hospital became a shared space for medical services and offices for the HMO separated by floor. However, the new lease on life for the building didn’t last long. The new owner, Harley K. Brown drove the new hospital and his HMO to insolvency. While Brown was busy spending money on lavish meals, fancy trips and trying to expand his boxing promotion career, his business debts mounted. At the same time, conditions in the hospital deteriorated and the facility became nearly unoccupied. In addition, medical service providers that were owed money for treating patients covered by Ultimed went unpaid. In 2006 Brown’s small healthcare empire fell into bankruptcy amid allegations of fraud and misuse of funds. As a result, the hospital closed and it has been abandoned ever since.

The building was purchased in 2010 and various plans for repurposing the structure were considered. Water that had flooded the basement was pumped out, graffiti was removed from the façade and security guards were posted to keep people out. However, none of the plans have come to fruition and when I was there the security guards were no longer there, leaving me to wonder what would come of this place.

View of Train Station from Hospital

Nurse’s Station and Patient Records on Third Floor

Ultimed Brochure for Children

X-Ray Viewers

X-Ray Machine

The hospital, as it is today, is a shithole. All of the windows have been smashed out, patient records and administrative files are strewn everywhere on the third floor, there is biomedical waste on the first floor and until recently the basement was flooded. However, this level of decay is typical these days, so I won’t hold any of that against the place. Hospitals are always fun to explore, due to their creepiness. In addition, this hospital has a great view of the city, x-rays and records to look at (if you’re into that) and medical equipment to check out.

Videos are a great way to get a first person perspective on a place. So, I’ll leave you the one above. Unlike most poorly edited videos dubbed over with horrible music, this one is a pretty straightforward exploration of the hospital with a couple of dudes.

]]>https://abandonedrelics.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/abandoned-united-community-hospital/feed/3bkcoryAbandoned circle drive hospital drop-off and shiny metal modernist buildingLooking through broken window in door down a hallwayGraffiti robot and metal arm originally used for mounting something office related newt to desk in officeSmashed television in abandoned hospitalView of train station tower and Downtown Detroit from glassless windowTrashed nurse's station counter surrounded by patient records all over the floorUltimed brochure titled "A Child's Guide to Health & Safety" with cartoon children playing on the coverSmashed backlit x-ray viewers and long deskDamaged X-Ray Machine & Table in smashed up hospital room